So if you live in Bethnal Green, you wonīt kill in Whitechapel?

[GUT]

It seems those that argue that he used Cross before in other situations, and is not dubious, is because he gave his first name as Charles. If he was going to hide his name, then why not actually hide his full name?

And address and place of work.

[MrBarnett]

And address and place of work.

And middle name.

But the surname he chose to use was different from every other example we have of him identifying himself to the authorities. He chose to use the name of his long-dead stepfather. A few weeks before he had identified himself as Lechmere when he registered his children at school. Presumably that's how they were known in the neighbourhood, unless their teachers called them Lechmere but their schoolmates called them Cross. A few months afterwards his name was entered as Lechmere on the electoral register. That's how he always identified himself to the authorities. Except on one, possibly two, occasions when appearing at inquests. The first being when he ran over a child and was accused of negligence, the second being when he found a dead or dying prostitute in the back streets of Whitechapel.


Perhaps on that single, solitary occasion it just never occurred to him to identify himself by the name Lechmere, the name by which he could have been traced through the official records, to the police and the coroner. Or perhaps he deliberately chose to withhold the name.

What he managed to do was to keep the name Lechmere out of the papers.

[Fisherman]

That's not what you've been told at all. What you've been told is this:

There were many thousands of men living in Whitechapel, among whom there would have been scores of dodgy characters, and several of these would prove to be much stronger Ripper candidates than Cross if we knew more about them. We can be sure of this on statistical grounds alone.

That is a free phantasy on our behalf, Iīm afraid. We cannot create suspects out of the woodwork like that, and such figments of imagination cannot influence Lechmereīs suspect value in either direction. You seem to think so, but let me assure you that it is not only wrong but also totally ridiculous.

[Fisherman]

It seems those that argue that he used Cross before in other situations, and is not dubious, is because he gave his first name as Charles. If he was going to hide his name, then why not actually hide his full name?

See post 387

[Fisherman]

And address and place of work.

see post 387

[Batman]

What he managed to do was to keep the name Lechmere out of the papers.

So he waits from a stranger, Paul, down the street to arrive so he can beckon him over to get a look at himself and the body, but wants to keep his name Lechmere out of the papers?

That doesn't gel does it?

[Fisherman]

What he managed to do was to keep the name Lechmere out of the papers.

... and had it not been for the Star - who may have gotten the address from a desk clerk, seeing as how no other paper at all gave the address or made an effort to do so - he would have managed to keep his home address from the papers too, in which case he would have been impossible to identify to the readers if he otherwise never used the name Cross.

That has to be food for thought to anyone with a serious interest in the case.

[MrBarnett]

see post 387

Fish,

By those who had the inquest reports read to them, did you have the former Miss Bostock in mind?

Gary

[MrBarnett]

So he waits from a stranger, Paul, down the street to arrive so he can beckon him over to get a look at himself and the body, but wants to keep his name Lechmere out of the papers?

That doesn't gel does it?

Why not? Perhaps he didn't want the name linked with such a sordid event. He, or his old Ma.

[MrBarnett]

If, in 1876, instead of killing a child, he'd saved one from drowning, I wonder what name would have appeared in the press?

[Darryl Kenyon]

Hi Sam
things they didn't have back then, which leads me to believe that the ripper was probably on there radar at some point.they just didn't have enough info to catch.

Abby,who says Cross was ever on the police radar as a suspect? I don't recall him being suspected by any Police officer ever [unlike Sutcliffe]. I wonder why that is.

[Batman]

Why not? Perhaps he didn't want the name linked with such a sordid event. He, or his old Ma.

That doesn't gel if he murdered Nichols.

It works if he didn't.

[Darryl Kenyon]

Your killer would have accepted ten minutes walking on the streets. Mine would have accepted twenty.

There really is no material difference - ten minutes and twenty minutes are both very long times to walk the streets after a murder, and anyone who does that has accepted to take that kind of risk.

Except it is a half hour walk home for Cross from Aldgate [and that is not including the half hour he could have been hanging around]. How long do you give the killer to be out and about with a bloody knife and Kidney?

[MrBarnett]

That doesn't gel if he murdered Nichols.

It works if he didn't.

Not with you.

If he didn't kill Nichols, there's a possible reason why he might have deliberately avoided using the name Lechmere.

If he did kill her, that same reason might still apply, but another, even more crucial reason might pertain.

[Darryl Kenyon]

Or have you come around to realizing that there was basically no people at all on the small streets of Spitalfields at these hours?

In any case, I donīt think that I have seen a single report of PC:s searching the dwellers of the East End or read about such measures being taken.

Yet we have an example of a dark thoroughfare [Bucks Row], which people were averse to going down in the small hours, being traversed by two people in a matter of minutes.

What about the house to house inquiry? Yes, they didn't search the dwellings but that's not for the want of trying. Anderson - if we had the same powers as the French police force etc.